Copyright © 2018
by Ralph F. Couey
In the life of an author- budding or otherwise -- there are two gut-wrenching events, the gauntlet through which we must all pass. The first is that initial meet with an editor, and the inevitable changes that must be wrought. As painful as that is, I recognize how important that work has to be. The second event is the first review by a third party. A book review is, at best, highly subjective and can be heavily influenced by the mood of the reviewer on the day your book lands on their desk. You can get a bad review for no better reason than the barista screwed up their latte order that morning. But there are valuable things to be learned, the most important being not everyone is going to love your book and how to deal with that associated angst.
Last April I self-published my first novel on Amazon, Tales of Barely, Missouri, a collection of short stories about a fictional town in south Missouri. In the time since publication, some 60 copies have been sold -- both hard copy and Kindle versions. The comments left by the purchasers have been wonderful. They all "got" the book, which is to say they understood the mood, setting, and characters. I am deeply grateful for their feedback. So, buoyed by those comments, I entered the book in a book competition hosted by Writer's Digest.
I'll save you the suspense. I didn't win. Or place. Or show, for that matter.
But this week I received an email from them with a short review by someone with the nom de guerre "Judge #49." I have been waiting on tenterhooks for this email, and that generated a certain amount of angst and fearful anticipation.
The review opens with numerical grading of some of the story elements. On a scale of one to five, five being outstanding, these were my grades:
Structure, Organization, and Pacing: 4
Spelling, Punctuation, and Grammar: 3
Production Quality and Cover Design: 3
Plot and Story Appeal: 4
Character Appeal and Development: 2
Voice and Writing Style: 3
I guess I shouldn't be too disappointed, since this was my first book. But a book is very much the child of that author, and you always want your kid to succeed. It was good that the two highest scores were for "Structure, Organization, and Pacing," and "Plot and Story Appeal." I interpreted that to mean that they were good stories that flowed well and were appealing to read, which is really the heart and soul of any writing effort. I want my readers to keep reading from cover to cover, and those scores indicate that there was some significant fertility present. The other factors were covered in the review itself, which I present here:
The title for the novel seems to this reader to be clear and folksy, providing the reader with a suggestive entry point to the work that establishes a sense of tone and provides firm footing. The dialogue here is sometimes problematic and clunky, sounding a little off in a way that causes the reader to stumble and question the characterizations. It’s hard to nail dialogue, especially when juggling characters, but it’s crucial to maintain a sense of realism and, to my ear, this element often seemed a little forced and wooden.
Apart from what’s inside the quotation marks, there is not enough attention being paid to creating tension and torque through the tags – those descriptors of externals and internal action that help readers know what’s going on in and around the dialogue, how it’s being delivered and how to take it.
The overall design of the book is professional. It features an interior layout that is crisp and clean with text design on each page that is readable though presented in a digital seeming font that is hard on the eyes. It may seem minor, but getting the interior in order is an important step in getting the reader hooked! Also, the cover image for the book is lush and evocative though the font treatment here, again, makes for difficult reading.
I spotted some minor spelling, punctuation and grammar problems here and there and even though these can seem minor, they can work to really destroy a reader’s confidence in the story they are reading, throwing them out of the flow of the narrative. A more thorough proofreading is warranted."
Well, not half bad, considering. After all, it could have started out, "This was the worst thing I've ever read..." and gone downhill from there. It would have been nice to get specifics on a few things, like the "clunky and problematic" dialogue that seemed "a little forced and wooden." I guess I need someone who will sit down and go over specifics with me. I'm currently writing the sequel "More Tales of Barely, Missouri" and it would have been great to get the benefit of those specifics. But to be honest, I spent some twenty years of my life writing intelligence reports for the government, and I suppose some of that stodgy style still permeates my creative efforts.
I'm a bit mystified by the third paragraph. I'm ashamed to admit I don't know what "creating torsion and tension through the tags" means. I'm guessing that the characters needed to be fleshed out some more, and more detail needed to be added about the action taking place during the dialogue. At least, I hope that's what it means.
I shared this with my copy editor, who was "mortified, humiliated and boggled" by that last statement in the review. But I thought at the time -- and I still do -- that she did a bang-up job not only correcting grammar, punctuation, and continuity issues, but also keeping me out of possible trouble with a certain Kansas City mafiosi.
So, the first review is on the books. I had hoped for more, but I think I should be very happy with what was said. Like I said, this is my first book, and it is only natural to assume that experience will make me a better writer.
There are other challenges ahead. I need about 15 people to recommend the book to Amazon, which means that they will pick it up for wider distribution and promotion, and hopefully, get me some additional critical feedback. And I need to learn more about the Kindle Direct Publishing software so I can fix formatting issues for which no clear advice exists on that website. I want to finish the sequel, and make significant progress on the other three books waiting in the production queue.
I do have another "book" out there. I wrote a sequel to an Andre Norton Sci-Fi novel, which the good folks who manage the late author's website have hosted it there, the first time they have ever done such a thing. This is clearly a high honor for which I am humbly appreciative. This story, "Star Man's Saga," did not go through an editing process, but still came out pretty nicely, and the feedback from the website's readers has been very positive. The story can be accessed under the header "My Published Books" on the right side of this blog page. If you haven't read the original, it may not make sense to you, but I tried to include enough flashback information that a new reader would understand the context in which the story is presented.
When I retired from FBI nearly two years ago (has it been that long???) one of my goals was to finish and publish that first novel. Now that I know what's possible, and what I can be capable of, I am pushing forward on the other projects as time allows. I'd like to feel a bit of pride for what I've accomplished, but I keep that firmly in control through regular visits to Barnes & Noble, where I see the accomplishments of thousands of other authors who actually made it to "real" publication and a space on the shelf of a brick-and-mortar bookstore. I don't even begin to think that a Pulitzer is in my future. I'm content to write stories that resonate with those who read them.
After all, sixty readers can't be wrong, can they?
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